The Old Hill Plaza was one of four venues run by the legendary Irish husband and wife team Mr and Mrs Regan. Mary ‘Ma’ Regan was an ex-schoolteacher and a shy but formidable woman. She came over with my grandfather Joe from Ireland when they were teenagers. During the Second World War she was a teacher and became head of PE for girls for Warwickshire. After that she opened tea shops in the Birmingham area and started tea dances. This then led to the dance halls. They started on a small scale and they had a lot of success. I remember once that Jerry Lee Lewis was due to play at one of her venues. For some reason there was an issue with his piano and they had to use my grandmother’s. She set up The Plaza in High Street, Old Hill, 45 years ago. It was a dance venue, and hosted almost every top act that was in the Top 30, before later becoming a bingo hall. One of Mrs Regan’s great pleasures was to tell people about The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Animals, who all played at The Plaza in the early 1960s.

Bob Bailey, who used to drive the bands, said of The Beatles: “When they played here, there was nowhere for them to stay so Ma put them up at her home in Woodbourne Road, Edgbaston.” She would cook chicken and chips for The Beatles and made sure Noddy Holder stayed off the ale. The clubs became known as “the Regan circuit” Acts on the circuit included The Beatles, Kinks, The Animals, Dusty Springfield, Brenda Lee, The Searchers, The Tremeloes, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Manfred Mann, The Moody Blues, Jerry Lee Lewis and Del Shannon. In their early days, the beat groups from the Wolverhampton area set their first sights on gaining a toehold on the emerging and rapidly flourishing, Birmingham beat scene. To play at either the Plaza in Old Hill or in Handsworth or the Ritz in King’s Heath (the ‘Regan Circuit’) was seen as being tantamount to recognition of a group as possessing genuine ‘potential’, especially as it was quite likely that you would be playing alongside successful chart groups from Merseyside or Manchester. Hardly any of the groups who reached the Top Thirty during the years 1963 to 1964 failed to play at one or other of the ‘formidable’ Ma Regan’s venues. John Howells of the ‘N Betweens remembers the first time his band met Ma Regan: “We had changed our name from the Vendors to the ‘N Betweensand had started doing more R&B stuff. We wanted to broaden our horizons somewhat and so we went and did an audition for the Regan circuit. We had been told that Mrs. Regan was not always easy to please but she seemed to like us and our style and we got a regular Monday spot at her venues. That meant that you would have to play at two of the venues during the evening, involving a quick hike across from Old Hill to Handsworth etc.” Graham Gomery feels that being accepted on to the Regan circuit was an important step forward

“Getting an audition with Ma Regan was possibly a part of winning the Big Beat Contest, I’m not really sure. Whether that was the case or not, the important thing was that when you started to play on that circuit you got an opportunity to meet and hear other, better groups and that could only be beneficial to you. Coming around on that revolving stage at the Plaza Old Hill was a real event. You felt like a star, especially when you might be following a group like the Beatles,Big Three or Merseybeats etc.”

The Express & Star columnist described Ma Regan as

‘a softly spoken Irish ex-school teacher who uses the same psychology with the groups as she did with school pupils, discipline and organisation’ and the Plaza Old Hill as the ‘principal venue in the area for up and coming groups ‘. It is not surprising therefore that local groups felt that the first step towards success was acceptance by Ma Regan and the opportunity to play at one or other of her venues. It was thanks to an appearance at the Plaza in Old Hill and the personal recommendation of Ma Regan that the Strangers got an offer from Decca to appear on the Brumbeat album.

Bev Bevan, ex Move and ELO wrote:-

Former schoolteacher Mary Regan and husband Joe’s original ballroom venue was the Gary Owen Club in Small Heath, not far from Birmingham City’s football ground, St Andrews. Then came a converted snooker hall in York Road , Kings Heath which they re-named the Ritz Ballroom. Next came the Plaza in Handsworth, and finally the Plaza in Old Hill.The most memorable day in the short but eventful life of Denny Laine and the Diplomats was that of July 5th, 1963, when we were chosen to open the show for The Beatlesat the Old Hill Plaza on the Halesowen Road.

‘Ma’ Regan took care of the business side of things, leaving Joe to run the venues and act as compere, usually dressed in evening suit and black dickie bow.

He would confidently announce the various bands, groups and singers in his lilting Irish brogue. The Handsworth Plaza was the biggest of the four and regularly had half a dozen or more groups performing on the same night. Old Joe was not much of a book-keeper, and a few times, on a night off, we would roll up at the Plaza”, convince him that he most definitely had booked us for the night, slot in with all the other groups there and play a 30-minute set.

Then we would pick up our £12 fee and drive to Alex’s pie stand in Birmingham to celebrate our little con trick. Mary and Joe Regan played a big part in the development of rock’n’roll music in the West Midlands by allowing dozens of local bands the opportunity to play these venues, in front of usually packed audiences.

They also brought to the area some top-line names. We opened for The Bachelors, Susan Maughan, Julie Grant and, also in 1963, an absurdly talented 13 year-old singer, songwriter, pianist and harmonica player who was promoting his big USA hit Fingertips. His name was Little Stevie Wonder.

But preceding The Beatles on stage – wow, this was something else indeed! Remember that this was the beginning of Beatlemania. John, Paul, George and Ringo had already had big hit records with Love Me Do and Please Please Me and had just registered their first number one with From Me To You.

They were currently topping the LP charts with their debut album Please Please Me. Because of our popularity in the Black Country, Joe Regan decided we were best suited for the unenviable task of being the group on stage directly before the biggest pop phenomenon since Elvis Presley.

Actually, the huge crowd – literally hanging from the rafters – was very good to us and many of our own fans were in the audience. Nevertheless we still got the occasional chant of “We want The Beatles, we want The Beatles” from the dominantly female crowd. This night was a double-header for the mop tops and their small roadcrew.

Firstly they were booked to appear at the Regans’ other Plaza in Handsworth. Unsurprisingly, they ran late and our scheduled half-hour spot became an hour or more. Usually we would perform several Beatle songs in our set, but obviously we had to drop those from our repertoire.

Truth was, we were running out of songs to play and reverted to a couple of ambitious instrumentals. We included Hava Nagila (which had Denny playing lead guitar behind his back ) and the Dave Brubeck Quartet classic jazz piece Take Five, which featured me playing a drum solo in 5/4 time.

We realised The Beatles had finally arrived and we could hear them talking backstage. Then we saw them all watching us from the side of the stage. We finished our set, the curtains closed, the crowd now in a state of nervous, near hysterical anticipation. Then two, separate, unforgettable things happened.

Firstly, our rhythm guitarist (under strict instructions from his fiancé Gill),had the presence of mind to ask John, Paul, George and Ringo for their autographs. They all signed the reverse side of one of our Denny Laine and the Diplomats black & white, glossy, handout picture postcards. So there you have it – the four Beatles autographs on one side, and a photo of a group on the other that just happened to feature one Denny Laine, who, 10 years later, would join Paul McCartney in his band Wings.

This is a unique piece of rock’n’roll memorabilia that will one day fetch many thousands of pounds in a Sotheby’s music auction. The second thing that happened is that Paul McCartney strolled over to where I was packing away my drums (no roadies in those days!) and began talking to me. Yes, Paul McCartney of The Beatles walked over to this awestruck kid from Sparkhill, Birmingham and said in his broad Liverpool accent:

“Aye mate, dat was really fab gear dat, really great like, y’know playing dat drum solo in 5/4 time like. Our drummer Ringo, he could never do dat!

The Plaza Bingo Hall at Old Hill ,has now closed following the death of 94 year old Mary. Compiled by Keith LawThe Beatles at Old Hill

L

Photograph by Bob Summers, Birmingham History Forum The Ritz Ballroom in Kings Heath featured The Beatles on 15.02.1963 and Pink Floyd 16-12 1967

There Are Currently 42 Comments for this Post

I have attached a picture of myself in a group of other lads at the Plaza Handsworth in I think 1960 when I was 16. It was in front of the band stand and you can see “CS” in the background which was Charlie Simpson Dance Band which still played at that time. We all used to go to the bar when he came on. I knew Mrs Regan and went to London with her and my friend Euan Rose from the Cheetahs a few times which was quite interesting.

ANY INFO ON THIS GREAT GROUP FROM ERDINGTON WHO HAD GEOFF NICHOLLS IE BLACK SABBATH AS THEIR LEAD GUITAR, THEY WHERE A GREAT FAVOURITE OF JO AND MA REAGAN WHO NURTURED THEM AT ALL OF THEIR VENUES INCLUDING THE KABIN, THEY DID ALL THE BEACH BOYS STUFF, AND HEADLINED WITH UNIT FOUR PLUS TWO AT THE MARINE BALL ROOM EVESHAM WHEN THEY HAD THEIR ONE HIT WONDER CONCRETE AND CLAY., THEY DO FEATURE IN BRUM ROCKED AND BRUM ROCKED ON BUT IT IS A POOR VERSION OF THE GROUPS MUSICALL PROWESS

hi my name is JOHN ROWLANDS and i was the founder member of THE BOLL-WEVILLS the original line up was, PETER WEBB DRUMS, BILLY DIXON GUITAR. GEOFF NICHOLLS LEAD GUITAR AND MYSELF JOHN ROWLANDS ON BASS GUITAR.
BILLY left the band, and we carried on as THE BOLL-WEEVILLS 3 but PETER left
the band and was replaced by TONY THOMPSON on drums and after a few months
we added another forth member TREVOR NEATH GUITAR , we took back the name
THE BOLL-WEEVILLS and became professional.
TONY THOMPSON left the band to carry on with his proffesion as a printer and was replaced by MALCOME POOLE ON DRUMS things were going very well when out of the blue TREVOR NEATH decided that he was leaving to join the army such a blow .
It was decided that we would disband GEOFF NICHOLLS went on to join JONNY NEAL AND THE STAR LINERS and then become off stage keyboards player for BLACK SABBETH and I joined THE EXCEPTION after the departure of DAVE PEGG of FAIRPORT CONVENTION Ileft the EXCEPTION after a management dispute, and decidedto give up the music and opened a KITCHEN & BATHROOM SHOWROOM called CASTLE & KICHEN & BATHROOM DEIGN based in Brookvale Rd Erdington, together with my wife SHEELAGH we sucessfuly ran the showrooms
and finaly retired after 28 years we now enjoy ourselves traveling home and France ion our motorhome’
I hope this has been the answer to some of the questions and would like to know who you are ????

Hi R O here,Used to be bass-guitar /vocals with New Cyclones, and Montanas during 60’s. Cyclones signed exclusively to Ma Reagan. Me now semi retired, writing novels, and interested in doing a bio of the regan venues, which I played solidly for 3 years. Any anecdotal stuff from old friends museos would be useful please? Thanks RO

Really random but Mary Reagon was my great Aunt and god mother and I’be always been fascinated to knw more about her my mom would take me into the Ritz in Kings Heath when it turned nto a bingo hall when I was little but i’ve always heard stories of the dance halls and Beates play there which is amazing, if anything has anything they could tell me about the times they spent with her that would be amazing! 🙂

Hi Francesca my grandaughter found this on her iPad. I remeber meeting you many years ago but have lost contact with your mom. Mary Regan was my mother in law, her son Gerard was my late husband.
I only went once to the The Plaza Old Hill and met Gerry, the rest is history!
My email address is above if you want to make contact.
Regards
Carol Regan.

Sad to read about the fire. I worked for Mary Regan at the Ritz, Old Hill Plaza, Handsworth Plaza, the Gary Owen and occasionally at the Corn Exchange, Bedford in the 60s. First as a Doorman, then DJ & MC and finally as the Ritz manager.

Hello Mike,
I would very much like to speak to you about the time you worked at The Ritz Ballroom. Please can you contact me via the email address listed so as we can arrange a meeting and a chat.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.

I remember playing at all three venues in the early sixties, anyone out there remember Robin Adaire and The Teenbeats around 1961-64? Great nights at the Old Hill & Handsworth Plaza, but what a sad end to The Ritz King Heath. Still find it amazing that I played on the same stage as some of the best in the music world!!

In the late fifties, early sixties there was a group of us who went to the Plaza in Handsworth, Wednesday and Saturday nights, we saw all the top groups of the day, namely The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Joe Brown to name just a few. I wonder if any of that gang of lads are still around today, namely Barry Wright, Roger Payne, Colin Smith, Geoff Tracey, would be lovely to here from any
of them

Remember playing the Plaza in or around ’64! Remember the revolving stage too. 🙂 There was a band contest? I was 14! and we came second as i remember. We were The Warwicks or The Cato Street Conspirators? Can’t remember which one now. I remember the UV lighting picked out a dark red fleck in my dark suit!! As I was playing I thought I had ash all over it!! Kept trying to rub it off as I was playing!! No wonder we only came second Soooo young Hahaha Happy days 🙂

Does anybody remember Jerry Levene’s new line up in the 64 / 65 / 66 era we backed Jerry in all the ma Reagan venues and had a great time with our white Fenders and Vox amps…we learned a lot from him .. grew up in the business thanks to his guidance, great guy, such a positive and honest attitude. Marrion and Mike used to visit me often here in Aldridge and I recall the farm where we used to practice. Great times…met a lot of people who made good later on. Kind regards to Marion, so sad Jerry is no longer with us, nobody can erase the good time memories we all share. Roger Mosedale, Lead, Barry peacock, Bass, Joe Dignum,Drums.

Remember seeing you in the Sundowners,you were only young but a great lead guitarist.Do you remember the socials at Tynings Lane CS?Were you also in The Fortunes with Tim Fame.The other drummer I new and remember was Roger Lowe lived at Barr Common.please feel free to contact on email.Woul love to have a chat about those great day so. Kind regards Terry.

I worked at the Ritz Kings Health has a class collector and bar person with my friend’s Trever Troman and Jimmy Powell. Great Times got to see all the great groups. So sad to see it now burnt down has I still live local to Kings Heath. But again Great Memories.

I was born in 63 so missed it all but have heard loads of tales over the years from my Father about Old Hill Plaza in particular…His brother Alan was rhythm guitarist in The Buccaneers..Lead guitarist was Mick Jones..Karl the Tempest vocals..The sad thing for me is no books have been written about these famous venues..So many memories by so many people..I personally know Mike Sheridan and managed to see Jerry Levine(sadly gone now) sing Out Of Time at one of his gigs.Wow-these Guys were all proper Legends..Soon no-one will be able to tell the tales…..Come on guys let’s have a book…

Hello to all on this Forum, I am pleased to read of all of everyone’s experiences and memories of The Ritz Ballroom. I would be very interested to speak to anyone who had worked at, and who played there, when it was the great venue that it was.
If anyone has any memorabilia or even a membership card that they could show me or even donate to the walk of fame, please contact me by email ‘ [email protected] ‘
Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing from you

I lived at Milford place in Kings Heath when the Beatles played the Ritz in Feb 63.
Due to the large crowds in attendance they had to enter the Ritz by climbing a ladder via the garden of number 8 Milford place ,then occupied by a mrs Homer.I managed to get their autograph which i still have…

used to go to Plaza Handsworth at least once every week during 1963-64.
Saw The Kinks, The Beatles and Jerry Lee Lewis among others.
I lived in Teddington Grove, Perry Barr and Jerry Levene (Michael Gibbs) lived around the corner in Glendower Road.
Happy Days

Hi I have been looking at the history of the plaza that you have on line, very interesting thanks. My wife and myself went to the plaza in the late 1950’s and the acts that were on then have not been mentioned, such as, the great Billy Fury and I Remember seeing Red Price and Cherry Wainer from either the tv show six five special or oh boy I can’t be sure which, sorry I can’t remember any others but all of the rock stars of that era were on.
Regards Ian

I was only 14 when the beatles came to the plaza handsworth to young for entry.where else could you see the kinks ,the bee gees,spencer davis,jerry lee lewis ,chuck berry,stars every week for a pound,fav locals the beachcombers(bruisers)redcaps. jackpots ,diplomats fantastic memories,downstairs to the bar for Coca-Cola.

I used to go to the plaza hands worth about 3nights a week with my friend Barbara we used to dance down the front to all the great groups . We saw the Beatles the first time and dusty Springfield joe brown Jerry lee Lewis who became a resident player there.dave Lacey and the corvettes .the cavern four p.s I married the drummer chris Hayes in the corvettes. One of the best male dancer was named Brian I can’t remember his surname. Speak again soon regards Carole Hayes.

I’m currently working on a project about The Beatles in 1963. Would love to hear from anybody who remembers seeing them at the Plaza in Old Hill or Handsworth and the Ritz in King’s Heath that year. Am particularly keen to find out who their support bands were. It seems that Dane Tempest & the Atoms, The Silhouettes, The Brumbeats and Dave Lacey & the Corvettes all did and would really appreciate from anyone who was in any of these bands.

The plaza was opened a lot longer then 45 years ago, I went there as a teenager and was Mrs Regans friend ,my friends and I used to associate with local bands including Robert Plant , John Bonham whom my friend Pat married , also Bev Bevan , Carl Wayne , Roy Wood ,we saw all the acts who went on to become famous , including Beatles , Moody Blues , ELO , and many many more ,The Plaza opened roughly 1962/1963 .

Forgot to mention Mrs Regan asked me to get a group of girls together to form a girl group , she was to fund instruments , pay for lessons , and she would back us all the way , I declined this , how my life could have been so different .

I lived in kings heath for the first 19 years of my life and at the ripe old age of 14 managed to blag my way to a part time job in the ritz but they would only let me work in the cloakroom because of my age, but the fantastic memories I’ve got of meeting and mixing with all of the people involved in the ma Reagan circuit There was all of the bouncers, {jimmy ashdown, bob, ron, Geoff, the bar staff, alan {he was a fireman) dot, Derek (from the black country] sorry, cant remember all the names of everyone unfortunately, and the bands that played there, wow what an influence on me, I have always been involved playing guitar in dozens of bands since those days (yes still playing now] but those early days I used to pester as many of the guys as possible to show me the tricks of the trade as I sat bored in the cloakroom, most were very obliging, – jeff lynn [idle race] steve winwood, spencer davis, Geoff brown,[the king bees who had a drummer called carl palmer] john, in a band called listen, who had a vocalist called Robert plant, Tom from a local band called the modernaires, even the guy out of the gene Vincent band, and the main man himself gene, great bunch of blokes,i think they went under the guise of the blue caps if I remember correctly. Look, please anyone who reads this message please do not hesitate to contact me for a chat and catch up on those fab days, even my sister [who is older than me] is dead keen for anyone to get in touch, she used to go to the ritz all the while as well! In anticipation of your reply, Paul Watts

Interested in researching the Kings Heath area in the sixties particularly some of the teenage characters who were around then.The Ritz,Kingsway Cinema ,andScorpion coffee bar and the surrounding district ..you sound like you might know quite lot of interest. Please e mail me with contact details. Many thanks in anticipation.
Bernie.

I worked at the Plaza in Handsworth from 1063/4 until it closed. Had a great time seeing and chatting back stage to the many groups that appeared. My best memories were standing inside a cordon of bouncers making sure that Stevie Wonder’s drum kit didn’t fall off stage when he hit the drum pedal, and helping to carry P J Proeby above our heads onto the stage. I have read other peoples comments and memories but no one mentioned the King Bees. As groups went they were OK but I remember them best for their drummer. A local kid I went to school with, Carl Palmer later part of ELP. Oh almost forgot having several drinking sessions with Ray (or Ray) Davis before the Kinks went on stage. My only regret was I never went in to see the Beatles, I was a firm ‘Stones fan.

Between 1963 and 1967 I played for a band called The Dark Hours
We played at most of the gigs in Birmingham including the Locarno, The Cascade Club The Rumrunner The Mayfair Suite etc
We played at Mrs Regan’s venues ie The Plaza Handsworth and Old Hill Plaza and the Ritz at Kingsheath
Some of the stars we were the supporting band for were The move, Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, Peter and Gordon, Wayne Fonana and the Mindbeners, Billy J Kramer, The Fortunes, The Tornado’s and a few others.
Unfortunately in those days there were very few camera’s and video recorders so all we have are a few photo’s to relate to
We also changed our name to the Mller Beats when we changed Managers and played with Lew Miller and his band.
We entered the Midland Beat Group Contest as The Miller Beats and we got to the final which was held at the Locarno Ballroom on February 7th 1966, we finished 3rd ,The winner were the U K Bonds who won a recording contract with Sony Records
Some of the agents we worked for were
The Roger Allen Agency
Creative Management
Barr Enterprises
Derek Bruce Orchestra’s
Asrra Agency
I don’t wish to bore you anymore but if anyone out there remembers The Dark Hours or The Miller Beats or has any information I would be very grateful if you could contact me John Hichman on [email protected]
Thankyou

Mary and Joe Regan were my grand-parents! My dad was Gerry, who sadly passed away a few years ago. If anyone has any photos of him at the Plaza, Ritz or Gary Owen would you mind sending me a copy please? Email is [email protected]. I have a couple of photos of him when he was in his late teens/early twenties and would love to see if there are any more out there at all. really appreciated. Helen Regan